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Young Musicians Celebrate America Through Patriotic Song Contest
An enthusiastic audience responded with generous applause to the performance of students who were among the first-place winners of the Patriotic Song Contest sponsored earlier this year by the Orange County Department of Education. Ella Wu, a junior at JSerra High...
Revolutionary Revenge
He had participated in the surrender of the British at the Battle of Saratoga on October 17, 1777, which tilted the scale for the Americans in their fight for independence and secured France’s support for their cause. He witnessed the first time in history that...
The War of Whose Ear?
In June 1731, London’s new Gentleman’s Magazine published a bizarre story detailing an incident that would embroil England and Spain in an extended war seven years later and determine the final border between the North American colony of Georgia and Spanish...
Does the Past Really Repeat Itself
News media headlines tend to emphasize conflict, controversy, and crisis. Why? Because negative stories attract more attention. They sell. As the old saying goes, “If it bleeds, it leads.” Even the weather gets a headline if it is about a blizzard, torrential...
Did Spain Save the American Revolution?
The story of the thirteen North American colonies rebelling against their "mother country," Great Britain, is deeply embedded in the American consciousness. Even many who struggle to recall the details of the nation's founding may be aware that French military...
An Insider’s View of the Constitutional Convention
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress declared thirteen of Britain’s twenty-six North American colonies to be independent. Two days later, they provided the reasons for that separation in the Declaration of Independence. Each colony then drafted new...
JoEllen Chatham
Jo Ellen Chatham, Ph. D. Dr. Jo Ellen Chatham is Director of the Center for Civics Education at Concordia University Irvine. She has developed a model community citizenship project, USA250-OC, whose mission is to increase the levels of civility and civic...
The Ideas of 1776 Still Matter
On July 8, 2026, Americans across the nation and around the world gathered in a shared moment of civic remembrance. At 1,138 locations spanning nineteen time zones and all seven continents—across forty-six countries, all fifty States, five U.S. territories, and...
Four Times Five = Semiquincentennial
All across our great nation, we just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States. July 4 has been celebrated as a special day of patriotism since 17,77 when the first organized celebrations took place...